Danielle Kang Admits To Missing Greens On Purpose
The American revealed she needs the pressure of tournament golf to improve her short game
In a bizarre admission, Danielle Kang says she missed greens on purpose during the LPGA Tour's JTBC Classic last week in order to practise her chipping in a "tournament scenario".
Working through issues in this maddening game normally takes place on the driving range or during practice rounds, but Kang decided that environment wasn't conducive to the sort of improvement she was looking for.
"I've been chipping kind of weird so I missed a couple greens on purpose last week, and I was talking about it with my coach and they thought it was the most absurd thing they had ever heard," she said, ahead of this week's Chevron Championship.
"My friend David Lipsky was like, 'You did what?' I said, 'You've never done that?' No, nobody does that."
Kang isn't the first player to struggle with this part of the game. Even the great Tiger Woods was struck down with a bout of the chipping yips back in 2015, while we saw Matt Fitzpatrick chipping cack-handed during last week's WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
However, the 2017 Women's PGA Championship winner is confident she will be able to get her short game to where she wants it to be if she continues to practise under the pressure experienced on tour.
"I have to figure it out eventually, so I have to keep chipping in a tournament scenario when I have to make an up and down. And you can't really recreate what you feel in a competition unless you're in competition. I've tried.
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"People can use gambling or whatever it may be, but for me, in that moment there is nothing I want more than to make par from a specific place. I can't recreate that unless it's at an event.
"I'm just trying to mishit and fail and see if I can recover the best that I can. It's an internal feeling that I'm working on. So technique is just part of it. It's not most of it."
A lifelong golf fan, Andy graduated in 2019 with a degree in Sports Journalism and got his first role in the industry as the Instruction Editor for National Club Golfer. From there, he decided to go freelance and now covers a variety of topics for Golf Monthly.
Andy took up the game at the age of seven and even harboured ambitions of a career in the professional ranks for a spell. That didn’t pan out, but he still enjoys his weekend golf at Royal Troon and holds a scratch handicap. As a side note, he's made five holes-in-one and could quite possibly be Retief Goosen’s biggest fan.
As well as the above, some of Andy's work has featured on websites such as goal.com, dailyrecord.co.uk, and theopen.com.
What's in Andy's bag?
Driver: Callaway Mavrik Sub-Zero (9°)
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (15°)
Driving iron: Titleist U500 (17°)
Irons: Mizuno mp32 (4-PW)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (50°, 54° and 58°)
Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron Newport 2.5
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
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